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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Amots who wrote (11961)	7/9/2004 8:37:04 AM
From: Ron	Respond to of 20773

Accounting problems at Homeland Security By J.D. Hillard, Medill News Service WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security has yet to accurately report its finances, risking waste and hampering decision making, the Government Accountability Office told a Senate committee Thursday. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., who chaired the hearing, said the government has made progress in controlling mismanagement, but continuing problems at DHS and the Pentagon and other agencies carry the potential to waste billions. "This is not a trickle of coins - it's a deluge of dollars," Fitzgerald said. "Instead of disappearing into the abyss of government balance statements, this money should be equipping our troops in the war on terror and securing our homeland from attacks." While the Department of Homeland Security, established in 2002, has accounting problems of its own, the 22 separate agencies consolidated to form the new department made things worse, said McCoy Williams of the GAO. Read the full GAO report. For example, the department's auditor, KPMG, could not audit some inventory of the Coast Guard, one of the umbrella agencies. In addition, McCoy said, the department has several areas where it cannot assure auditors that misstatements would be detected on a timely basis. The GAO and Fitzgerald recommended that Congress pass S. 1567, a bill which would establish a chief financial officer for DHS, appointed by the president. The bill also would require the department's internal oversight be audited. DHS needs to serve fewer masters on Capitol Hill, said James Carafano, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, which promotes conservative public policy. In a report on the Heritage Foundation Web site he wrote that supervision of the new department is "fragmented and incoherent." Dozens of committees and subcommittees claim jurisdiction over some part of the department's work, the legacy of an earlier time when its agencies were scattered throughout the federal bureaucracy. Read the report. Currently, DHS officials report to a House Select Committee on Homeland Security, as well as several other committees. "It's like having too many moms," Carafano said. "Can I stay out late at night? One mom says 'no' one mom says 'yes.'"